


Get up

by SarcasticTicTacs



Category: The Promise Neverland, 約束のネバーランド | Yakusoku no Neverland | The Promised Neverland (Manga)
Genre: Angst, Beginning of Romance, Emma is shook, Even the Goldy Pond kids ship it, F/M, Fluff, Ray can't shut his mouth, There's some blood btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-17 22:21:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18107660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarcasticTicTacs/pseuds/SarcasticTicTacs
Summary: She wondered if this was how Ray felt when he saw her bleeding out on the ground all those years ago.





	1. Get Up

**Author's Note:**

> I dedicate this to the Rayemma Cult™. You guys and your plot bunnies aka Lewis 2.0, Ray saying nonsense, and Emma freaking out.
> 
> I haven't written in a very long time, so this probably sucks. Excuse any mistakes.
> 
> There's a reason my major deals with computers...no essays.

She wondered if this was how Ray felt when he saw her bleeding out on the ground all those years ago. The sight of Lewis’s claws going through his body, just like what had happened to her, filled her with horror. Emma didn’t see the attack coming, the newly revived Lewis had been too fast, but somehow Ray did and he pushed her away without a second thought.

“EMMA!” His voice was still echoing in her head as she and her comrades released a barrage of bullets into the demon’s body, her horror giving way to violent fury. She needed to get to Ray, and to do that, Emma needed to kill that damn demon.

It was taking far longer than she wanted it to. It felt like forever and Emma was beginning to run out of ammo, but Lewis was running out of energy, his mask had been taken out by a well-aimed shot by Ray earlier, meaning that there was a chance to win this. After a hard fought battle, there was only one bullet left in her gun’s chamber, and when all seemed hopeless, she took a chance and shot Lewis in the dead center of his face, causing his head to explode into hundreds of pieces.

He lifelessly hit the floor with a thud, his hat floating down next to him soon after.

There wasn’t any time to celebrate the victory. Ray, Ray, Ray. He was the only thing on her mind as Emma beelined towards him, falling to her knees when she finally reached his side. “Ray!” She rolled him onto his back, careful not to jostle him more than what was needed, and rested his head on her lap. His eyes were closed, his shirt was soaked red, and a small stream of blood was trailing down his chin from his mouth.

But he was breathing. It was shallow, but he was breathing. That was something.

“Hey, we did it,” she said softly, gently running her hand through his hair. “You can get up now, Ray.” Tears began to fall from her eyes when there was no answer. “Get up! Get up! Ray, please!” Emma’s hands tightened around him and she buried her face into his chest. “Didn’t you say you’d be by my side?” More tears fell, this time they were joined by small hiccups. _“Get up!”_

They needed to go back, she knew that. It was his only chance, but she couldn’t move. If these were truly his final moments then she wanted him in her arms. “Please,” she whispered.

A minute later, a loud gasp shook his body. It was followed by a series of coughs and a raspy voice, “Emma,” there was a pause. “Why are you crying?”

Emma snapped her head up with speed that rivaled Hayato’s. “Ray!” The dam broke and she began full-on sobbing. “You idiot! You aren’t allowed to die!”

Ray looked at her with half-lidded eyes. “I know. I’m sorry.” Then he turned his gaze to the sky. “Ya know, you’ve always reminded me of the sun, Emma. You’ve always kept me warm.” He was looking at her again and furrowed his brow. “…and tangerines. I like tangerines.”

She blinked. “What?” _Oh no._ The blood lost must’ve made him delusional because that just sounded like plain nonsense. It was amazing that he was even awake.

Emma grasped his bloody hand with her own when he weakly lifted it up. “You’re here, but I’m feeling cold, Emma.” Right on que, he let out another cough and specks of blood flew out.

“No, no, no, no, no.” Panic was beginning to set. What the hell was she thinking? Having a conversation when he had two gaping holes in the middle of his stomach and sitting in a pool of his blood. “We gotta get you back.” Emma turned to Oliver and Zack. “Help me with him.”

“Wait.”

“Nope, there’s no waiting. We’re leaving after we’ve cauterized the blood vessels.” She pulled out her knife and handed it to Zack, who motioned to Violet to start a fire. Emma grabbed some bandages from their medical pack and began to wrap his wounds as best as she could. It needed to be tight, she couldn’t risk him losing any more blood.

“Emma, wait.”

“No!” She shouted. With that, she nodded towards their friends to help move him. “C’mon. He’s gonna need a blood transfusion when we get back.”

“I love you.”

Everyone stopped in their tracks, staring at him with wide eyes. Then the kids from Goldy Pond slowly backed away.

“Huh?” At that moment, Emma’s brain stopped working while her heart started beating hard against her chest. “Wh-what? L-lo-love?” She sputtered out. “I…uh…um…What?” Did she hear him right? Was she the delusional one now? Her body had been pumped up on adrenaline earlier and was probably coming down from its high. Yeah, maybe that was it.

“You may have one ear, but I know you have two ear drums,” he squeezed her hand tighter. “I love you. I loved you since as long as I can remember and everyday I’ve loved you more. I can’t survive in a world without you so don’t you dare die.”

She felt her cheeks warm up and was absolutely positive that her face was redder beyond belief. He couldn’t be…there was no way…why was he telling her this now? “Ray, y-you.” She was internally screaming at this point. _Words, Emma. Find words!_

“I guess I really am an idiot. Should have said this sooner,” the words came out sleepily, he was clearly about to drift away. “Emma, I love you.”

He grinned and then he closed his eyes.

Of course he would choose that moment to fall asleep. Even now he was teasing her. She let out a groan and sat back a little. “You are an idiot, but so am I,” she said with a smile before leaning forwards and whispering into his ear, the one that once held his tracker. “I can’t live without you either so don’t die. It’s forbidden, okay?”

Romance was something she never really thought about and Emma knew she needed to sort out her feelings, but in the meantime, she couldn’t stop herself from pressing her lips against his ear.

It just seemed right.

 

* * *

 

Emma hadn’t realized that just few feet away, the rest of their group was paying close attention to what was being said.

“Uh, they know he’s not dead, right?” Zack asked, heating the knife inside the fire.

“I think so,” Oliver responded.

“Guess this means that Gilda won the betting pool,” Violet muttered, slightly miffed because she had been so close to victory.

“Hush,” Gillian hissed, the group proceeding to do random tasks in order to look like they hadn’t been eavesdropping. “Let them have their moment.”

 

 


	2. I'm Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys wanted a follow up, gotta feed the fandom lol There's going be another chapter after this, it was just getting a little too long for my liking.

It was dark, but he could hear the steady beat of what sounded like a heart monitor. Ray felt something on his face and groaned when he went to reach for it, his whole body was sore beyond belief and his throat was absolutely parched.

There was also something in his hand, it was small and warm and comforting.

He gave it a small squeezed, his muscles protesting slightly.

“Ray! You’re awake!” Emma’s voice rang out almost immediately. The sensation in his hand disappeared and was followed by ruffling and frantic steps. “Lights, we need lights.” He winced when the room lit up suddenly and she was back by his bedside faster than he thought was possible. “How do you feel?”

“Water,” he managed to croak out, ripping away the oxygen mask from his face.

“Right, you’ve been asleep for a while. You must be thirsty.” She produced a cup from somewhere and held it out to him. Trying to sit up was a challenge, his abdomen seriously hurt. “Here, let me help you.” Ray let her and grabbed the cup as soon as Emma finished rearranging the pillows behind his back in order to support him. Ray drank as if he hadn’t water in days, which was most likely the case since he noticed he was hooked up to an IV containing fluids.

Emma watched him the entire time with a smile on her face and her eyes shining brightly. Seeing her like this, with her trademark expression of sheer job, always made his stomach flutter. It could be a little annoying sometimes.

For some reason, she was looking exceptionally happy right now.

After a couple of seconds, he felt his cheeks get a little warmer under her gaze. It hadn’t always been this way, there was a time where she could grin at him and it wouldn’t have gotten any reaction greater than him throwing one back.

He wondered when everything changed. It could’ve been puberty’s doing, it made sense. Put a growing boy and girl together, especially in such close quarters, then something was bound to happen. There’d be hormones flying amok, certain urges would come to light and…oh, who was he shitting? It wasn’t because of puberty, he never felt anything towards Anna or Gilda during those awkward years. The idea of even liking someone else never crossed his mind. It was Emma.

Always Emma.

Ray pushed those thoughts away and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. “You’re looking really cheerful. What’s up?” he asked like everything was completely normal between them. After all these years, it was like a second nature to keep those emotions in check.

She shrugged her shoulder, still looking incredibly gleeful. “Nothing. Just thinking about you said.”

What he said? Was this before he’d gotten hurt? That was strange, there wasn’t anything that stood out to him. Lewis. Emma. Claws. Blood. “Emma—“

“Hold on! Let me get you some food before you say anything.” She scrambled to her feet. “You need sustenance. I’m sure there’s some soup in the kitchen.”  

If this was something important then he needed to clear things up right away. “I’ll go with you.” The heart monitor went silent after he tore off the nodes from his body. Unfortunately, trying to get up wasn’t the easiest thing to do, even using the IV pole for leverage didn’t help much, but he was making progress.

Progress that was instantaneously lost when Emma grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back onto his bed. Ray let out a small noise of discomfort, but she didn’t seem to notice. “Don’t worry about it! Just wait there!” The she bolted out the room so fast it was like she was being chased by one of those feral demons.

There was obviously something he was forgetting that was making her act strange. Well, Emma’s always been a little weird, but even so, she’s only ever acted like this when there was something to hide.

He sat back against his pillows, it’s not he had any other option. Ray was pretty sure that Emma would throw him over her shoulder and drag him back to bed if she found him trying to escape the infirmary. Speaking of infirmary, he pulled up his shirt to see what exactly had landed him in here. Lewis had done a number on him if the amount of gauze wrapped around his middle section was any indication.

The spot was still tender so Ray figured it would be better if he didn’t mess around with it and put his shirt back into place. Since there was nothing else to do while he waited, Ray racked his brain for any details that might pertain to what he was missing.

Tangerines.

It was faint, but Ray could remember saying something about them.

“I like tangerines.” He slowly said out loud, testing the words on his lips. Was that it? Like? Maybe he said love? Did he love tangerines? Sure, they tasted good, but would he go as far as to say love…

_“I love you”_

Oh no.

_“I loved you since as long as I can remember and everyday I’ve loved you more.”_

Oh shit.

_“Emma, I love you.”_

Oh FUCK.

He had confessed to the love of his life while he was convince he was dying. Not only that, but he’d forgotten about it too. No wonder Emma was being odd, she was expecting him to say something.

“I’m back!” Emma announced as she threw open the door and then nudged it shut with her foot. “Now, I couldn’t find any soup, but,” she said, elongating the syllable, “there was some applesauce!” With a grin, she held it up alongside a spoon.

Before he knew it, she was sitting on his bed, humming as she opened the lid of the container, and stuck the spoon into it. “I remember you feeding me when Lewis got me. So here.” She took a scoopful and began to move it towards his mouth.

Ripping off the heart monitor was a good move, his heart was thumping heavily and his face was absolutely burning.  Ray was internally screaming at himself right now. _Idiot!_ Part of him wished that a demon would manifest and just swallow him whole right then and there. Although, Emma would probably kill it before it got the chance.

 She was just that amazing.

 “I love you.”

 God damn it, he did it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter, but confrontation between these two precious children will happen soon.


	3. Get Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg they are so ooc and this is the first kissing scene I've ever written. It's so cringy, I'm sorry haha
> 
> Also, please imagine that they're older than 13.

The spoon clattered on the ground. “Eh?” Her hand was floating midair as she stared at him in shock. His face practically lit on fire as soon as he realized what just happened. What had he done to deserve this? Who had he wronged? Why has all sense of rationality left him?

All of a sudden Emma was brought out of her stupor, she let out a squeak and hastily buried her face in her hands. 

That had to be a bad omen. Maybe this was the reason she was being so strange before, she didn’t know how to turn him down. Ray cursed at himself. His stupid impulsive actions could have completely destroyed their friendship or, at the very least, made it awkward forever.

“Wait, Emma! I can—“

She held out a hand to stop him in his tracks. “Don’t look at me right now.”

“What?” His heart dropped into his stomach. She must’ve been so appalled to the point that she couldn’t stand the sight of him anymore. “Listen, you don’t have to worry about it. It doesn’t matter. We just go back to how we were before. Just friends.”

“You idiot!” Emma snapped, revealing her face and glaring at him. “How can even you say that!?” It was then when he realized that the reason why Emma had hid behind her hands was because she’d gone _absolutely_ _red._

Ray’s eyes widened. Surprisingly, Emma looked just as embarrassed as he was. “Well, you didn’t say anything, you dolt!” Ray shot back, returning the petty insult. It wasn’t the most mature thing to do, but at this point, he’d already lost the ability to think logically.

“You didn't say anything earlier either!” She exclaimed, dramatically throwing her arms in the air. "It was almost like you wanted to pretend that you haven’t said it before!"

"I forgot, okay!" There was really no point in keeping the truth from her now, they’d already reached the point of no return a long time ago.

"You forgot? Ray, how could you forget!?"

Did the fact that they were in the infirmary completely go over her head? He rolled his eyes and scoffed. "I was busy trying not to die."

"Well, I didn't forget!" Emma practically growled before taking a deep breath to calm down a little. “It’s all I could think about while I waited for you to open your eyes. I held your hand for five weeks, hoping that one day you'd wake up and ask me to not let go." Her cheeks became a darker with every other word. Then she sighed and let out a big groan. "Arrrgh, but here we are, yelling at each other when we're supposed to say we love each other."

“Huh?” It took some time to register all of that, especially the last part. His head was ready to explode trying to make sense of it. "Emma, what are you saying?"

"Stupid Ray," she said softly before wrapping her arms around him, mindful of his wound, and burying her face into his neck. Her breath tickled against his cattle number and Ray wondered if she could hear his pulse pounding. Tentatively, he put his hands on her back.

A small chuckle escaped his lips, he didn’t know whether it was out of nervousness or amusement at the fact that they could go from arguing to hugging each other in such a short time. But that was just how things were with Emma, unpredictable and always a pain in his ass. He really did love this girl. “Geez, you keep insulting my intelligence.”

It was her turn to giggle now. "I'm saying that I'm glad you listened to me and didn't die. Otherwise, I'd never be able to tell you that I feel the same way. Ray, I don't want to live in a world where you're not by my side. We’ve been through too much together." Emma pulled back and smiled at him, her green eyes shimmering brightly. "We're a duo, okay? There's no Emma without Ray."

He nodded and pressed his forehead against hers. “There’s no Ray without Emma either.” A thought occurred to him. “This isn’t a dream, right? I could still be knocked out for all I know.”

“Trust me, you’re not.” And to emphasize this fact, she interlaced her fingers with his. It was small, warm and comforting just like it had been when he woke up, and it was definitely real.

There was no stopping the silly grin that appeared on his face. “It’s funny. I never thought the girl I love would love me back.”

Emma squeezed his hand. “She does.”

“But she hasn’t said it yet.” She sat back and raised an eyebrow, and then laughter rang out from the both of them. They didn't know exactly why they were laughing, it could've been how smug Ray had sounded or maybe they were just laughing because they wanted to.

Then she said the words he wanted to hear ever since the day he fell for her all those years ago.

“I love you, Ray.”

He cupped her face in his hand and leaned in to press his lips hers. It was brief and chaste, but wonderful.

Their eyes met for only a few seconds before their mouths crashed together in a kiss that was far less gentle than the one before. “I haven’t done anything like this before,” Emma admitted when they paused to take a breath.

“Me neither.” Without any hesitation, Ray buried his hand in her curly hair and brought her back to him, claiming her lips once more.  There was absolutely no explanation for how good they were at this when they didn’t have any experience. Everything was just coming naturally.

Things were really beginning to heat up when Emma nipped at his bottom lip and made him gasp, resulting in frantic opened mouth kisses. He fell back against his pillows and pulled her on top of him, ignoring the twinge in his abdomen. They were aware of how fast they were moving, but it was as if they were drunk on each other’s kisses and couldn’t get enough.

The door burst open suddenly and a chorus of voices all yelled, “RAY!”

Emma and Ray failed to split apart fast enough before their entire, rather large, group of friends and family, Norman included, got to witness the end of their very first make out session.

Awkward silence filled the room. Most of their audience stood there with their mouths agape, others were desperately trying to avert their eyes, and there was a good number of people giving Ray a knowing grin, even Gilda and Don.

It was Norman who broke the silence after what felt like hours. Their savior and number one friend cleared his throat and told everyone, "We should back come back later, guys. I'm sure Emma and Ray want to be alone for now.”

And with that, everyone filed out of the room without a word. Everyone except for Chris, who flat-out asked Anna, "Are Ray and Emma going to get married?"

Anna's voice was faint, "Who knows? Maybe."

Emma and Ray gave each other tortured looks. “Thank you, Norman,” Emma finally said as soon as it was just the three of them left in the room and climbed off of Ray to sit on the edge of the mattress. Happy, energetic Emma was lost for words, she looked completely mortified.

“Yeah." Ray barely managed to get out, he was far too busy cursing at the world inside his head to be embarrassed.

Norman crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, he smiled at them, but Ray didn’t miss the fact that it didn’t reach his eyes. “I always had a hunch this was going to happen. Ever since you guys got here.” It was obvious the trio’s dynamic had shifted after those two years where Norman was thought to be dead. Now, he was Minerva and they became a packaged deal. “I’m happy for you.”

Ray nodded. “This doesn’t change anything between us, Norman.”

“Yeah!” Emma added in, “You’re our friend and we’re not going to forget that even though things are like this now.” She waved around their joined hands that somehow managed to stay together despite everything.

“You guys don’t have to say anything. I already know that.” He made to leave before turning around and getting them a wicked smirk. “Oh, I can try to find you guys some tangerines. From what I hear, Ray really _loves_ them.”

The next thing Norman knew was that he got a pillow to the head thrown by no other than a red-faced Ray. “Get out!”

Norman let out an amused chuckle before tossing the pillow to Emma which she managed to catch with her free arm. He shut the door behind him, but they could still hear him laughing from the other side.

"At least, we don't have to break the news to anyone." Ray deadpanned, staring blankly at the wall. His soul had left his body a long time ago.

"Most people already had their suspicions." He furrowed his brows, he thought he’d done a good job of concealing his feelings. Emma must’ve seen the gears turning in his head and took pity on him. “Some of the guys from Goldy Pond were there and probably passed around the details.” She laughed at his horrified expression, people had heard _that_. 

The idea of a nice, dark hole to hide in sounded really appealing right now.

A sudden wave of exhaustion rippled throughout his body, and his injury was beginning to ache. Even after five weeks, the stab wound hadn’t healed completely. Not to mention, he used a lot of energy throwing that pillow at Norman, among other _things_ , and wore out his muscles in the progress. It was pretty ridiculous, he’d slept for more than a month but he still felt like he needed to sleep more.

Emma must have noticed his discomfort because she immediately tried to get up. “Ahhh! It slipped my mind that you were hurt!” No doubt, there was a perfectly good reason behind that and Ray couldn’t blame her, it’d been pretty distracting at the time and, minus the part where they were rudely interrupted, far better than he thought possible. “I can sleep in the chair, that’s what I’ve been doing.” A strong tug on her hand pulled her back and she landed face down on the bed with a plop. She raised her head and pouted. “What was that for?”

He shrugged his shoulders and answered, “I didn’t want you to let go yet.” A light dust of pink spread across her cheeks as Emma remembered her words from earlier. _Hoping that one day you'd wake up and ask me to not let go._ “Just sleep here.” Ray scooted over and made room for Emma.

It took them a while to find a comfortable sleeping arrangement for the both of them, especially since the bed wasn’t made for two. First, it was because they had to be mindful of his injury, and second, Ray stubbornly refused to release his grip on Emma’s hand. The result was Ray laying on his back while Emma was on her side with her head on his chest and their hands between them. “Hey, Ray, can you sing that lullaby? The one you hum sometimes.”

That surprised him a little. Ray wondered how many times she’s caught him doing it since the last time he hummed in front of her was that last night at Grace Field.  Now, it was something he did when he was reading and there was no one around. Besides the blood running through his veins, it was his last tie to Mama. “Yeah, okay.”

“I love you,” Emma happily told him when the song died out, her eyes were beaming up at him. He pressed his lips against her forehead before moving onto her cheek and finally her mouth.

“I love you, Emma.”

And this time, Ray said it on purpose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The stars finally aligned and Ray was finally able to say it without making a fool out of himself! Although, he'll probably never be able to look at tangerines again.


End file.
